i have a s&w 629 6 1/2" 44 mag that im going to be working up a new load for. right now im shooting 240 gr soft points with 22 grains of 2400 behind it. im thinkin of switching to hornady this year for hunting because i would like a little better expansion. anyways, using 240 grain xtp, and if i can i would like to use somewhere around the 22 grains of 2400 again, can someone give me a rough guess of velocity.

I shoot the same 629 6.5" 44mag. In my speer manual, 17.7 gr 2400 will give you 1271 fps. This is the max load.

I shoot 23.5 gr Win 296 with 240 gr xtpbullets but I will be switching to Cast Performance lead bullets since the lead now used is an alloy an it much harder than the old SWC bullets.

H110 and Win 296 are pretty much the recognized powders for hunting loads for the 44mag.

You might also want to try the 250 grain Nosler Partition. I really like that bullet for deer. I have used the 300 grain XTP for quitye a few deer also. Both in the muzzle loaded and SBH.